Man changing the wheel of fortune

Since it was very tough for Sohel Rana to earn a living and look after his four-member family just by pulling a rickshaw, he decided to venture into making bamboo products to earn some extra cash.

He provides for the family better than before.

In Proyogjani village of Tangail's Delduar, he is not the only one making bamboo products.

Over 700 families in the village and nearby Borni and Kopaki villages are now earning extra doing the same work besides other work they usually do.

Sohel, 25, said, “The income I used to manage by pulling the rickshaw was not enough to run my family and so I started making bamboo products to ensure a better life for my wife and two sons.”

“Now I can buy necessary food, clothes and other things for them and also save a little bit of money for future,” he said. 

Most of the people in the three villages make bamboo products alongside working in their fields or during days when they are not working as hired help, he said.

This correspondent while visiting the villages recently saw that people, including women and children, were making different items with bamboo, on roadsides, shops, tea stalls and on their yards.

Abul Kasem, from another poor family in Proyogjani, had passed Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) examination, but could not get a job. After his marriage, he set up a tea stall in front of his house.

He tried to run his small family with the income from the tea stall. But it was impossible when he became a father of two.

To overcome the situation, Kasem learnt how to make bamboo products from a neighbour. He then started the work alongside running the tea stall.

His wife Nasima Akhter helps as well.

“Bamboo is a plant by which you can make almost everything you want. We, however, make the items as per order of the local wholesalers,” Kasem said.

“We mainly make different types of flower baskets and tubs for the flower shops in the capital which they use to keep flowers,” Nasima said.

As the price of bamboo increased a lot recently, it was not possible to make much profit from the work, but still one could earn around Tk 300 from it a day, the couple said.

Anwar Hossain of the same village said late Shukur Dewan of Borni village had started making bamboo products first in the area about 50 years ago and he later taught the others who showed their interest in it.    

Around 1,200 families of three villages worked in this trade, but many left the profession for better paying jobs, he said.

Anwar added that besides ordinary household items like dala (flat basket with a high rim), kula (winnowing fan), chalan (sieve), jhaka (large basket for carrying goods), khachi (wicker basket) and khaloi (fish-creel), the villagers also produce beautiful and quality kitchen baskets, cake baskets, bags, nests and different showpieces by bamboo. These are being exported to foreign countries, including the US.

One of the wholesalers in the area Yasin Sikder of Borni, who himself makes bamboo products, said he collects orders from different markets and shops in Dhaka and has the items made by the villagers.